Recommended Research Reports: on Poverty, Equity, Civil Rights, and Religion

I. On Religion and “Faiths”:

Like the main national centers that study poverty and economics (See “Research Resources”), The Brookings Institute puts out a wide variety of critical working papers. A centrist institute, some of its working papers, as well as those of its sister Hamilton Institute, overemphasize the importance of individual change processes without simultaneously addressing systemic cultural, political, economic and other factors that create situations of impoverishment individuals must negotiation. (Both are necessary, but the evidence indicates that systemic causes are most significant in causing impoverishment.) Nevertheless, their work is worthwhile. Here is Brookings’ Faith in Equality: Economic Justice and the Future of Religious Progressives, produced by the Governance Studies at Brookings.

The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative’s Multidimensional Model for assessing poverty globally
is explained in clear language. Several countries have adopted it (not the US). It is more accurate and more functional as a tool to assess what actually needs to be done than any ‘purely’ economic model for determining “poverty” currently in use in the US.https://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/oc63ch03.pdf

The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative has an excellent series of working papers. The (economic) wonk factor is quite high in some. But e.g., “Winning Ideas: Lessons from Free Market Economics” gives an excellent short genealogy of the rise of neo-liberal free market economics. It is but 50 years young; it took off only in the 1970s. Amazing how something so seemingly ubiquitous can be so young–and transformable…https://www.ophi.org.uk/working-paper-number-06/

The National Poverty Center’sWorking Paper Series # 13 -06, May 2013

Rising Extreme Poverty in the United States and the Response ofFederal Means-Tested Transfer Programs This paper, along with many other critical reports on the variety of issues impacting the poor, is available online at the National Poverty Center Working Paper Series index, at:https://www.npc.umich.edu/publications/working_papers/

World Bank Development and Research Group, Poverty and Inequality Team, #S6963“Inequality is bad for the growth of the poor (but not for that of the rich)”:
“The paper assesses the impact of overall inequality, as well as inequality among the poor and among the rich, on the growth rates along various percentiles of the income distri­bution. The analysis uses micro-census data from U.S. states covering the period from 1960 to 2010. The paper finds evidence that high levels of inequality reduce the income growth of the poor and, if anything, help the growth of the rich. When inequality is deconstructed into bottom and top inequality, the analysis finds that it is mostly top inequality that is holding back growth at the bottom.”https://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWDR2006/Resources/477383-1118673432908/Inequality_is_Bad_for_the_Poor.pdf

The United Nations Millenium Development Goals Report, 2014
The Millennium Development Goals are among the most successful anti-poverty measures in history. Worldwide, extreme poverty has been cut in half since 1990. 1 in 8 people, worldwide, remain hungry. This paper outlines the goals, and the next deal with next steps.https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

“[There is a] multi-decade cross-country relationship between inequality and the fragility of economic growth. Our work built on the tentative consensus in the literature that inequality can undermine progress in health and education, cause investment-reducing political and economic instability, and undercut the social consensus required to adjust in the face of shocks, and thus that it tends to reduce the pace and durability of growth [BPC italics]. Results: First, more unequal societies tend to redistribute more. It is thus important in understanding the growth-inequality relationship to distinguish between market and net inequality. Second, lower net inequality is robustly correlated with faster and more durable growth, for a given level of redistribution. These results are highly supportive of our earlier work. And third, redistribution appears generally benign in terms of its impact on growth; only in extreme cases is there some evidence that it may have direct negative effects on growth. Thus the combined direct and indirect effects of redistribution—including the growth effects of the resulting lower inequality—are on average pro-growth.”https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2014/sdn1402.pdf

US Chamber of Commerce Foundation“Recreating Equality of Opportunity”
“The growing skills gap is one of the most persistent challenges affecting thriving and lagging state economies—the disparity between the skills companies need to drive growth and innovation versus the skills that actually exist within their organizations and in the labor market. This disconnect, expected to grow substantially as the boomer generation retires, causes workers and companies to miss out on realizing their full potential. A sizable skills gap impacts virtually every aspect of the economy, thereby affecting our national competitiveness and, in turn, causing the economy to fall short of its potential.”https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/library/2014/06/enterprising-states-2014-re-creating-equality-and-opportunity

Roosevelt Institute’s “Reforming Taxation to Promote Growth and Equity” by Joseph Stiglitz, May 28, 2014 “This white paper outlines concrete policy measures that can restore equitable and sustainable economic growth in the United States, in the context of the country’s recurring budgetary crises. Effective policies are within our grasp, because these budgetary crises are the result of political and not economic failings.Tax reform in particular offers a path toward both resolving budgetary impasses and making the kinds of public investments that will strengthen the fundamentals of the economy. The most obvious reform is an increase in the top marginal income tax rates – this would both raise needed revenues and soften America’s extreme and harmful inequality. But there are also a variety of other effective possible reforms related to corporate taxation, the estate and inheritance tax, environmental taxes, and ensuring that the government gets full value when it sells public assets. This white paper describes the gravity of the economic situation in the United States, but also shows that there is a way out.”https://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/reforming-taxation-promote-growth-and-equity

Demos.org on “The Myth of the GDP”
If the economy is growing, how could there be so little progress on poverty alleviation? This short slide show explains why (and works well with OPHI’s paper, “Winning Ideas,” above).https://www.demos.org/myth-gdp